Audience segmentation is a process of dividing people—typically consumers—into homogeneous groups based upon a pre-defined criterion. For instance, advertisers may use audience segmentation to design and tailor products and services for consumers based on information obtained from the consumers. In some cases, certain groups of consumers are assumed to have similar interests, needs and behavioral patterns that are suited for a particular product or service. This assumption allows marketers to design relevant messages that may influence those consumers to purchase or use the product or service with a higher success or conversion rate than other consumers not having the same interests, needs or behavioral patterns.
A relatively new product of interest to advertisers is 360 degree video, which is a form of video that enables a viewer to view a scene from different angles of the viewer's choosing. For instance, in a 360 degree video recorded from the center of a performance stage, the viewer may choose to look forward toward the center of the stage, to either side of the stage, or to the rear of the camera position toward the audience just as if he was turning the camera in the respective direction. This enables different viewers to look in different directions of interest to follow a particular character or object while watching the same video. 360 degree video can be viewed on a virtual reality (VR) device, a tablet, a smartphone or a personal computer application. In such applications, the user controls the viewing angle in any one of several ways, such as by movement of the VR device (worn on the user's head), by swiping or tilting a tablet or smartphone, or by using a mouse and keyboard on a personal computer. Presently, there are no known techniques for audience segmentation based on the viewing interests of users watching a 360 degree video. Therefore, improved audience segmentation techniques are desirable to capture user preferences at a greater level of detail than with existing techniques.